Bill Campbell wrote:
Apparently the problem with the Mac is the DRM again. The studios are apparently all worried that people will keep copies of the old TV shows and movies downloaded.
I have an old Mac Mini that I would like to use to watch some Netflix shows on (better than sitting in front of a computer, or watching it on a small laptop), but until it is supported I can't. The Mini is hooked up to my TV directly.
Quicktime absolutely supports DRM, so what's the problem? It's a cheap company that's looking to get the most bang for the littlest buck. It wouldn't have taken much to have their system ask for the users choice of player (WMP or QT), so the other remaining issue is time to convert films to digital format and storage. Since the conversion is probably automated it shouldn't have taken that much extra time. So the only issue is disk space, which means that Netflix was too cheap to spend the extra money to store a QT version of the films so they could get the Mac users. From what I remember of the Netflix downloads they were looking for a cheap way to get ahead of Blockbuster. They looked good, but they did as little as possible, which included a limited availability of movies.
Unless I'm missing something (entirely possible with video stuff), Macs have no problem viewing Windows media play files using the free flip4mac program.
Netflix has its own add-in to windows media player that probably provides the authentication. I don't think it will work with anything else.